Here are two photos of what I mean by crimp-on PL-259s failing.
http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll290/W2IRT/Towers%20and%20Antennas/?acti
on=view¤t=Crimp-fail-1.jpg
http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll290/W2IRT/Towers%20and%20Antennas/?acti
on=view¤t=Crimp-fail-3.jpg
You can see the braid/ferrule has pulled back from the main part of the
connector. When installed this was flush against the body of the connector.
Eventually this will pull right off. If I hadn't soldered the center
conductor in (some are intended to just crimp on) the coax would pull right
out of the connector. When, in the middle of CQWW 2009, my 160 TX antenna
had failed I went outside and found the coax laying on the sodden ground
having failed exactly in that manner.
After the contest was over I pulled somewhat-gently on every coax sticking
down from the Ameritron antenna switchbox and two more pulled apart. At that
point I still trusted the connectors, but I insisted on soldering the
centers after that. When more failed inside the shack, on patch cables, etc,
I gave up and went back to solder-only.
------
- pjd
-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Michael W5NIG
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2011 9:17 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Crimp-on PL259 et al
***Quote***
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:39:52 -0500
From: "Peter Dougherty" <w2irt@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Crimp-on PL259
To: <nf4l@nf4l.com>, "'towertalk reflector'"
<towertalk@contesting.com>
Message-ID: <018401cbca3c$99d3e380$cd7baa80$@net>
Mike, I have to say my experiences with crimp-on connectors has ranged from
convenient to catastrophic failure, with the latter being commonplace. I'd
say about 75% of the crimp connectors have failed within the three years
they've been installed, both inside and outside. Once any stress goes on the
cable (just gravity for the most part), it's just been a matter of time
before it fails in my experience. I'm using connectors from The RF
Connection as well as the crimp tool they provided and I use a cable-prep
tool from DX Engineering. This summer all my remaining crimp-on connectors
will be cut off and new solder-type (inside) and clamp-type connectors
(outside) will go on instead. I'm quite intrigued about this new clamp type
and I'd personally like to get more first-hand experiences before
shotgunning out all the existing connectors.
***UnQuote***
Very interesting! I've been using a coax prep tool for quite a while now,
it's a
love/hate relationship, hi hi. works well though, all in all. I just
bought a crimp
tool with the extra set of jaws at the last hamfest that I attended. I
haven't had
opportunity yet to us one on regular rg8 or 213 but have had the pleasure of
installing
a few on 8x. I've got to say Im impressed with it in that capacity! good
compression
on the shield and great tension on the jacket. Usually the thing is subject
to twisting
etc and if the coax is moving a lot I eventually might have issues with it.
I"ll be testing
it on 8/213 coax at easy to get to places to see how it goes when I get back
on my tower
project!
Michael de W5NIG
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